Christine Graef

“What is clear is that you cannot tell any community how to do their own healing,” an attorney with the Native American Rights Foundation tells MintPress about healing the historical trauma of boarding schools. “They must define their own process. We cannot impose it.”

Pupils at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pennsylvania, 1900.
BOULDER, Colorado --- In the Cumberland Valley, located west of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, rows of white headstones line the green grass of a cemetery where 186 children are buried. Many of the headstones are marked

Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation and a descendent of one of the people President Andrew Jackson forced to walk the “Trail of Tears,” is one of four candidates in a popular vote for who should grace the next $20 bill.

President Bill Clinton hugs former Cherokee Nation chief Wilma Mankiller after presenting her with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House, Jan. 15, 1998.
TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma --- Wilma Pearl Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, is one of four candidates in a popular vote to

Tribal communities in the U.S. and Canada are increasingly turning to traditional punishments like banishment to handle crimes on their land. “It’s a lot more effective than putting someone in front of a judge or behind bars,” one advocate tells MintPress.

Mike Lasnier, Chief of the Suquamish Tribal Police, poses for a photo on the Suquamish Reservation in Washington state. Across the country, police, prosecutors and judges have been wrestling with the vexing question for decades: Who qualifies as an Indian when it comes to meting out justice for crimes on

After 18 years of negotiations, the Organization of American States is gathering momentum on a declaration aimed specifically at protecting the rights of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas — even without the participation of the U.S. and Canada.

Sarayaku women attend a ceremony where the Ecuadorian Government offered a public apology that came as part of a ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court which found that the government allowed for oil exploration in Sarayaku lands without their consent. Indigenous people will have access to the courts as part of a recent historical

“Most people think GMO foods are for the future, for a time we have no food because of climate change,” a labeling advocate tells MintPress. But that “future” is now, as an estimated 70-80 percent of the food Americans eat contain GMOs.

WASHINGTON --- A Pew Research Center survey in January set out to gauge the sentiments held by the public and scientists with the American Association for the Advancement of Science on a range of science, engineering and

After intense lobbying, a mining company secured favorable legislation to push forward an iron ore project in northern Wisconsin. It now says that wetlands are forcing it to re-evaluate the plan, but not everyone is convinced.

The proposed mine could potentially damage the watersheds around the Bad River Reservation, endangering the fragile ecosystem upon which this wild rice depends.
HURLEY, Wisc. --- A proposed mining project has brought a Wisconsin county to work together with local Native American communities, but it’s also

Without regulatory oversight or public consultation, the USDA allows for the commercial production of a new GE pine variety. Yet opponents warn that the implications of introducing this GE product are unknown, and unknowable, without long-term studies.

Oregon State University professor Steve Strauss holds leaves from genetically engineered poplar trees in an undisclosed location in Oregon, Tuesday, July 29, 2003. The leaf on the left is an average leaf from an unmodified control tree and the one on the right was genetically engineered to be larger and will be used to identify